The Nobel Committee has a legacy of recognizing trade as a force for fraternity between nations. In 1901, the first-ever peace prize was shared by Frédéric Passy and Henry Dunant, cofounder of the Red Cross. Passy explained that trade can bring nations closer together.
In 1933, the Committee recognized Norman Angell, who wrote that interdependence between countries would be “the real guarantee of the good behavior of one state to another.”
It later recognized former U.S. Secretaries of State Cordell Hull and George Marshall. According to Hull, “There can be no real progress toward confidence or peace nor permanent trade recovery while retaliations and bitter trade controversies rage.” Marshall testified that “No economic bond is closer than the friendly ties of mutually satisfactory trade. No force is more divisive than the introduction or maintenance of unnecessary barriers to such trade.”
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